Why This Year's Delhi Pride Went Beyond Section 377

The focus of the Pride for many years has been the repeal of Section 377 and the demand for dignity for people of diverse gender and sexuality expressions in public and private spaces. But such a struggle cannot be isolated from other forms of violent suppression of rights -- be it centred around caste, class, religion, disability or the ability to express dissent.

NEW DELHI, INDIA NOVEMBER 30: Members and supporters of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community at the eighth Delhi Queer Pride parade in New Delhi.(Photo by K.Asif/India Today Group/Getty Images)

By Dhrubo Jyoti

On the last Sunday of November, hundreds of people take to the streets of the Capital every year to celebrate an identity that society has stigmatised and the laws have outlawed.

But this year, Delhi's Queer Pride was different. The 8th edition of the annual LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) event saw people from various movements of resistance walk side by side, marching in solidarity to demand a whole range of freedoms that are under threat.

The Pride, historically, has been a place for people -- all of whom fight social oppression every day, and are branded criminals in their own country -- to come together and seek strength in each other.

The focus of the Pride for many years has been the repeal of Section 377 that criminalises same-sex lives and has no place in a modern democracy, and the demand for dignity for people of diverse gender and sexuality expressions in public and private spaces.

But such a struggle cannot be isolated from other forms of violent suppression of rights -- be it centred around caste, class, religion, disability or the ability to express dissent.

Hence, this year, Delhi's Pride marked its solidarity with numerous infringements on personal and social liberties of various communities, speaking up alongside a rising tide of writers, scientists and historians protesting against shrinking spaces for dissent.

The pride this year was not just a statement against barbaric laws that are used to extort and harass, but also against a host of other oppressions. It was against festering casteism that subjugates millions of lower caste people, delegitimises their lives and stigmatises them.

It was against state violence targeting Adivasi lives, social discrimination of disabled people, patriarchal laws policing women's lives, and the instigation of fears in the minds of religious minorities.

So many of us live in fear every day at our homes, our workplaces, schools, colleges and on the roads -- scared that we'll be targeted for our gender, sexuality, caste, class, religion, ability and so on.

Delhi's Queer Pride this year asserted that it is time to end all these fears, and that queer freedom is inseparable from a broader culture of respect and space for diversity.

Hence, the pride this year was demanding laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, sex, class, caste, religion, tribe, ability, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation. We also call for strict action against those responsible for muzzling dissent and violence against minorities of all hues.

Queer people cannot be free in a world where a diversity of people are shackled, not just because a common oppressor -- overarching patriarchy -- attacks us all, but also because many of us straddle multiple identities - we're Dalit and queer, Muslim and queer, tribal and queer, disabled and queer.

Hours before the Pride, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may have sounded sympathetic to the LGBT cause and urged for the repeal of Section 377 but until everyone has the right to live with dignity, such homilies are useless.

The heart of Delhi was populated with people who were demanding the right for everyone to be free of persecution.

About the author: Dhrubo Jyoti is a journalist by profession, a physicist by training. He works with the Hindustan Times, New Delhi, and makes better use of time with Gaylaxy.

This is a slightly modified version of the post that was first published in Gaylaxy